The Speed of Speech

The Speed of Speech….….is 2.5 to 3 words a second. You cannot cheat this. Across cultures, languages or scenarios.The human ear is trained to listen and digest at a certain pace. One can read much faster than they hear, and there is also greater variance in reading than listening. But speech speed always falls within this band, unless there are pauses, or dramatic intonations, or a questions and answer section. 

I hope you remember this “nugget”. For Life.  It is remarkable how few people know this. From High School students to senior career diplomats. But they all agree that time is critical, and that something that can be said in a more concise and precise manner should be done so. Attention spans are getting shorter. Those high school and college students typically prefer to not click on a youtube video link that is over 10 minutes. TV channels will play a video over a “talking head” after a few seconds. And the diplomats know that mics of even Heads of States are cut off in the UN after their time allotment.

Knowing how much spoken content can fit in a finite or specific amount of time is a critical first step to crafting a speech. How much to say should precedes what to say, and how to say it. 

Now you may argue that you think you speak much faster or slower than someone else you know, or that you know someone who is a particularly fast or slow speaker. But to be comprehensible, the speed of speech inevitably falls into the above band. In my classes, I have never seen someone who managed to speak at 4 or more words per second through their four minute speech. My students have 240 seconds to make their speech, with penalties if they go much over. Interestingly, the average words of my class speeches converges to about 600, or 2.5 words per second. As long as you don’t have dramatic pauses, or an interactive Q&A session, it is almost impossible to break this rule. And you don’t want to…for the sake of the listener. Keep in mind that you can typically read twice as fast as you can speak though. And while readings speeds can vary, speaking speeds fall into a narrow band, internationally

Let’s try it. I illustrate this exercise in class, when I say “I just spoke 9 words in about 3 seconds.” Now you try.  How long did you take?

Of you can say to yourself, with a stopwatch: 

“I am trying this experiment, speaking at my normal rate for a few seconds, simulating a public speaking setting, only to realize that my speaking speed actually meets this window.”

30 words. Should have taken you about 10 seconds. Then there is also a slight pause after sentences. 

When I cold call a new group with this question about guessing the speed of speech, I am surprised at  the range of answers - from less than a second per word to more than 4 seconds per word. And this variance inevitably comes up within a homogenous group - of Central Bankers, graduate students, or senior corporate executives of the same firm. With widely divergent responses, one Ambassador would write a script for an occasion that is 4 or 5 times longer than another. Even a President’s speechwriter came up to me and said he had never thought of calculating and planning for speaking speed. Imagine. To me, this is a lament. While crafting an important message that can impact lives, one must know how much can fit, otherwise you fall short on time or leave valuable time on the table. 

This critical piece of knowledge has been extensively utilized and leveraged on Radio and TV, where every second is expensive. Why doesn’t it occupy a similar space in our everyday lives, striving to be good speakers? A key challenge for my communication students and clients is to work effectively with time. I try to catalyze my students’ proficiency and presence by making them “slow time down” though the power of their words and emotions. More on this later. But time remains constant and consistent. And just like on a resume, you want to leave some “white space” in your verbal pieces, with appropriate pauses for comprehension, emotion and breathing.

Less is more when it comes to communication. Bracing yourself to deliver just enough, packing that speech backpack just right for an important occasion, is critical to successful public speaking, online and live.  I hope you will remember this lesson on speech speed, and share it with many others to add value to their lives. You will be surprised by how few people are actually aware of it.  

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